Letter from the Secretary of State dated 26 February 1949, signed by the then Substitute Monsignor Giovanni Baptist Montini, officially communicated to Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira the praise and blessing of Pius XII for his work ‘In Defence of Catholic Action.’
In January 1947 the sudden and unexpected news arrived of the appointment of Father de Proença Sigaud as bishop of Jacarezinho.99 A few months later, Father Antônio de Castro Mayer was nominated coadjutor of Octaviano Pereira de Albuquerque, Archbishop-bishop of Campos.100 The two priests, shelved because of their support to the group of the Legionário and to the book Em Defesa da Ação Católica, were now honoured by a demonstration of trust by the Holy See that seemed to be a reparation. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira recalled the episode with these words:
“I still remember the day in January of 1947 when I gave the news to my friends that, according to an envoy, Pius XII had named Fr Sigaud as bishop of Jacarezinho. But how? What? Our joy was great, but our doubt even greater. Fr Sigaud, during the windstorm, had been sent as a missionary to far-away Spain. Would he return? Yes, he would. And our joy rose to Heaven as a hymn. A star was lit to shine in the night of our exile, upon the remains of our shipwreck!
“Contrary to all expectations, another joy awaited us the next year. As I arrived, one night in March of 1948, at our catacomb, a friend awaited me at the door full of joy. Canon Mayer who, during the storm, had gone from the high post of Vicar-General of the Archdiocese to become the parish priest of far-away, albeit interesting, Belenzinho, had just communicated to us his nomination as coadjutor-bishop of Campos. It is useless to tell with what jubilation we immediately went to congratulate him.”101
On 20 November 1947 the encyclical Mediator Dei102 on the sacred liturgy appeared. It aimed to correct the deviations in the liturgical movement by developing the Pontifical teaching already begun with the Mystici Corporis103. The Legiónario greeted it with joy, publishing the entire text of the important document.104
The next year, in the Bis saeculari Constitution,105 Pius XII formulated a definition of “Catholic Action” that showed a clear analogy with that already expounded by Dr Plinio. In 1947, the Pontiff had issued a warning against the tendency to level out the various forms of apostolate, limiting them to Catholic Action alone. He had admonished that in the “magnificent world movement of lay apostolate, (…) we must avoid the error of those who seek to make all work for souls conform to a uniform pattern”.106 This way of acting, the Pontiff insisted, “is quite foreign to the traditions of the Church” which “favours a fruitful multiplicity of Catholic apostolate, manifested in various societies and institutions which all work intensely under the guidance and protection of the Supreme Head of the Church.”
There is no text of Pius XII where we can read that Catholic Action is a “participation” in hierarchical apostolate.107 “This apostolate always remains the apostolate of the laity, and it does not become hierarchical apostolate, even when it is exercised with a mandate of the hierarchy”.108 In order to avoid any misunderstanding and ambiguity, the Pope always uses the word “collaboration”.
Against the apostolate of the laity as emancipation from the Holy Hierarchy Pope Pius XII stated:
“It would be a mistake to see in Catholic Action (…) something essentially new, a change in the structure of the Church, a new apostolate of laymen side by side with that of the priests and not subordinated to the latter. In the Church laymen have always collaborated in the apostolate of the Hierarchy in subordination to the Bishop and to him to whom the Bishop has entrusted the responsibility for the care of souls under his authority. Catholic Action has only given this collaboration but a new form and organization so that it may be better and more efficaciously exercised.”109
“Recently what is called ‘lay theology’ has sprung up and spread to various places, and a new class of ‘lay theologians’ has emerged, which claims to be independent. Nevertheless, it is necessary to maintain to the contrary that there never has been, there is not now, and there never will be in the Church a legitimate teaching authority of the laity withdrawn by God from the authority, guidance and watchfulness of the sacred teaching authority. In fact, the very denial of submission offers a convincing proof and criterion that laymen who thus speak and act are not guided by the spirit of God and of Christ.”110
Against the attribution of sacrificial power to the laity, the Pope stresses that:
“The priest-celebrant, putting on the person of Christ, alone offers sacrifice, and not the people, nor clerics, nor even priests who reverently assist. All, however, can and should take an active part in the Sacrifice. The Christian people, though participating in the Eucharistic sacrifice, do not thereby possess a priestly power, We stated in the Encyclical Mediator Dei on the sacred Liturgy. (…) For there are some who have not ceased claiming a certain true power to offer sacrifice on the part of all, even laymen, who piously assist at the sacrifice of the Mass. (…) It must be firmly believed that the ‘priesthood’ common to all the faithful, high and reserved as it is, differs not only in degree, but in essence also, from priesthood fully and properly so called, which lies in the power of offering the sacrifice of Christ Himself.”111
Almost as if to bring an end to the period of ostracism, a letter of the Secretariat of State dated 26 February 1949, signed by the then Substitute Secretary of State, Archbishop Giovanni Battista Montini, officially communicated the praise and blessing of Pius XII to Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira for his book In Defence of Catholic Action.112
Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira’s book was a reply in advance to many erroneous and dangerous theories that would develop in subsequent years. The liturgical and secularist deviations incubated in Catholic Action exploded in the end like a cancer in the post conciliar period, revealing a new conception of the Church itself. After all, already during those years, avant-garde theologians such as Fathers Yves Congar113 and Karl Rahner114 were making every effort to draw from the developments of “Catholic Action” a new egalitarian “theology of the laity”, already involving female priesthood.115
Notes:
99. Father de Proença Sigaud was consecrated bishop on 1 May 1947 by the Papal On this occasion, Plinio compared him to the great personages of the Brazilian episcopate such as Bishop Vital and Archbishop Duarte Leopoldo e Silva, “models of intrepidity and firmness, of combativity and holy audacity”. “One can expect much from him as regards true and unbreakable grandeur of soul”. P. Corrêa de Oliveira, “Dominus conservet eum”, Legionário, no. 768, 27 April 1947.
100. On his death, in January 1949, Father de Castro Mayer became bishop of this important diocese of the state of Rio de Janeiro.
101. P. Corrêa de Oliveira, “Nasce a TFP”, Folha de S. Paulo, 22 February 1969.
102. Pius XII, Encyclical Mediator Dei of 20 November 1947, in AAS, (1947), 39, pp. 521-95. Cf. J. Froger, “L’encyclique Mediator Dei”, La Pensée catholique, (1949), no. 7, pp. 56-76.
103. Pius XII, Encyclical Mystici Corporis of 29 June 1943, in AAS, (1943), 35, pp. 193-248. Cf. P. Corrêa de Oliveira, “Mystici Corporis Christi”, O Legionário, no. 585, 24 October 1943; Father José Fernandes Veloso, “O ‘liturgismo’ condenado pelo Santo Padre Pio XII”, O Legionário, no. 612 30 April 1944; Father Ascanio Brandão, “Falsos profetas”, O Legionário, no. 616, 28 May 1944.
104. P. Corrêa de Oliveira, Notas e comentários à Encíclica “Mediator Dei”, O Legionário, no. 803, 28 December 1947. “The publication of the Encyclical ‘Mediator Dei’ constitutes, for all, a cause for holy and vibrant jubilation” (Idem, “Fé, união e disciplina”, O Legionário, no. 800, 7 December 1947). no. 803 was the last issue of the Legionário under the direction of Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira; it is likely that the publication of these comments on the Mediator Dei was the last straw that led to the dismissal of Dr. Plinio and his team.
105. Pius XII, Apostolic Constitution Bis Saeculari of 27 September Cf. Ludger Brien S.J., La constitution ‘Bis saeculari’, texte et commentaire, 4th edn., Montréal, Secrétariat National des Congrégations Mariales, 1961. Bishop A. de Castro Mayer, A Constituição Apostolica “Bis Saeculari Die”. Repercussões jurídicas. Esclarecimentos doutrinários, (conference addressed in Piracicata on 9 December 1948), in Las Congregaciones Marianas. Documentos Pontificios, Zaragoza 1953; Cf. also Fr. Juan Bautista M. Ferre, O.C., Catolicismo o Capillismo, Madrid, Emamevica, 1957; ID., La Acción Católica Piedra de escandalo, Emamevica, Madrid 1958; Arturo Alonso Lobo O.P., Que es y que no es la Acción Católica, Impr. de Aldecoa, Madrid 1950; ID, Laicología y Acción Católica, Madrid-Buenos Aires, Studium, 1955; Fr. Cyrillus B. Papali O.C.D., De apostolatu laicorum, 2nd edn., Rome, Teresianum, 1962.
106. Pius XII, Radiomessage to the Congress of Marian Congregations in Barcelona, of 7 December “One must guard against those who, impelled by praiseworthy zeal, seek to make all work for souls conform to a uniform pattern. This they do because of a short-sighted view which is quite foreign to the traditions and gentle spirit of the Church, the heir of the doctrine of St Paul: ‘Now there are diversities of graces, but the same Spirit’ (1 Cor. 12:4). And just as in earthly armies various components and units ensure by their very diversity that harmonious co-operation which leads to victory, in the same way, side by side with other forms of zeal, however important and essential they may be, the Church desires and encourages the existence of organizations of lay apostolate, (…) She wishes them to prosper and develop according to their own organizations and methods, thus furnishing a clear proof that in the army of Christ there exists a fruitful multiplicity of Catholic apostolate, manifested in various societies and institutions which all work intensely under the guidance and protection of the Supreme Head of the Church” (ibid; Cf. IP, vol. IV, Il Laicato, p. 788).
107. J.-G. Dubuc, Les relations entre hiérarchie et laïcat, p. 56.
108. Pius XII, Speech to the II World Congress for the apostolate of the laity, of 5 October 1957, in IP, IV, Il Laicato, 528 sgg.
109. Pius XII, Address to the directors of Italian Catholic Action, of 5 May 1951, in IP, vol. IV, Il Laicato, p. 879. also Pius XII, address to the World Congress of the apostolate of the laity, of 14 October 1951, in IP, vol. IV, Il Laicato, pp. 913 sgg.
110. Pius XII, Address to cardinals and bishops for the canonisation of Pius X, of 31 May 1954, in IP, IV, Il Laicato, pp. 913 sgg.
111. Pius XII, Address to the cardinals and bishops of 2 November 1954, in IP, vol. IV, Il Laicato, pp. 982 sgg.
112. This is the text of the letter sent by the Secretariat of State to Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira on 26 February 1949: “Illustrious Sir, Moved by your filial dedication and piety, you offered the Holy Father the book Em Defesa da Ação Católica, in which you reveal perfect care and persevering diligence. His Holiness is very pleased with you for having explained and defended Catholic Action — of which you have a complete knowledge and for which you have great esteem — with penetration and clarity so that it has become clear to all how important it is to study and promote this auxiliary form of the hierarchical apostolate. The August Pontiff hopes with all his heart that this work of yours results in rich and mature fruits and that from it you may harvest neither small nor few consolations. And as a pledge that it be so, he grants you the Apostolic Meanwhile, with due consideration, I declare myself, Devotedly yours, J. B. Montini.” In 1963 Archbishop Montini was elected Pope Paul VI.
The book had also received the approval of six archbishops and fifteen bishops of Brazil (Cf. Em Defesa da Ação Católica. Aprovações e encomios de autoridades eclesiásticas, São Paulo, 1983).
113. Yves Congar, Jalons pour une théologie du laïcat, Paris, Editions du Cerf, 1953.
114. Karl Rahner S.J., “L’apostolat des laïcs”, tr. fr. Nouvelle Revue Théologique, 1, 1956, vol. 78, 3-32.
115. “Every time that someone is in legitimate and usual possession of any part of liturgical or legal power that goes beyond the fundamental right of every baptized person, this person is no longer lay in the normal sense, he no longer belongs to the simple ‘people of God’ (…). In this strictly theological sense, a woman can belong perfectly to the ‘clergy’, even if the range of power that she can receive is more limited than that of a man” (K. Rahner, op. cit., pp. 5-6).